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Hi Laura,
I really like this plan. I also agree that as a result of the modules there are now so many ideas andactivities to expand on. For infants the thematic approach is perfect and one that deepsned the learning across the curriculum. I like that you have set out a variety of activities for the week, this goes well with the new curriculum with more fluid timetabling allowing cross curricular learning. The infants will have so much fun!
Module 5
Space Week School/Class Plan
Looking at the activities in this module I would create a School/class plan for the Junior end of the school.
Plan
In advance of Space Week provide lesson ideas (printed packs) and online links to class teachers on Alien Chemistry and Rockets. This could also be done at a Staff Meeting ahead of Space Week. (Of course it could be expanded to the whole school with all of the Space Module activities and ideas.)
Specifically looking Alien Chemistry and Rockets.
Invite the classes to a ‘Space Science Fair’ at the end of the week to observe the experiments that have been tried and investigated through-out the week and have a ‘Rocket launch’ competition.
Ensure resources are purchased if required or collected and circulated in advance to support teachers in the activities. (example balloons, straws, raisins, fizzy tablets, plastic containers, space craft templates etc)
Support activities to inspire to launch of Space Week for infants would include:
‘We’re Going on a Rocketship’ by Super Silly Songs
Marvin and Milo Cartoons on Building Rockets
Video of the Artemis II Rocket launch from April 2026.
During the week experiments on the ‘Dancing Raisins’ , creating green’ alien slime’and ‘ foaming moon craters’ and ‘elephant toothpaste’ in tuff trays for sensory play. Allow students to predict what could happen in advance, Record and photograph experiments for display and school website.
Finish the week where classes can circulate and students can present their experiments and finaly have a Rocket Launch Competition. Maths and measures can be used to determine the distances reached.
Everyone gets a Certificate for Being a ‘Space Week Scientist’
Feedback from students and teachers gathered afterwards to inform SSE and future Space Week initiatives.
This lesson would have been so good to do in June when it was so hot! We brought our class out on a Teddy Bears Picnic and they all had to bring in a teddy but bringing Science into it using the Teddy’s ice cube is a fantastic idea.
Of course we would have to give them all a freeze pop at the end as a treat when the experiment is complete.
Module 4
Activity Set:Where do you live?
Coincidentally we just did something on this theme in our DEIS Summer Camp but it can easily be applied into the school year curriculum and is cross curricular,
In Summer Camp the theme was Community and Connection and we used ‘It Takes A Village’ as our prompt and we literally designed and built a village with art materials over the course of the week.
To apply as a school-based activity: For Junior Infants and 6th Class
Start with ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’ by Julia Donaldson as a prompt to talk about homes, what do we need in our Home? The discussion around the animals in this story can be used in a later lesson to link with animals homes and bring the ‘animals in the cold’ lesson in to further develop the theme.
Questioning: Where do we live? What type of buildings do we live in? Are they different or the same? How are they different or the same? What is a community? Are there other buildings in our community beside homes? What are they? etc
I would ask an older class to join us as ‘building buddies’, for example invite 6th Class to join Junior Infants and pair them up.
Provide junk art: cardboard boxes of varying sizes, paper, mosaics, glue, scissors, paint, crepe paper, colors, lollipop sticks, fabrics,etc
‘Building Buddies’ work together to create buildings/homes where we live, it can be a dream home, a pets home, a shop, a garage, whatever they decide. The older students can support the younger students to think about what they could build, what will they need, think about what is inside/outside, for example could they add a garden? balcony? Can you see outside? Do you need windows/doors? What about furniture?
This would take a few sessions to complete.
Once completed we would join the buildings together to create our own village/community. Plenty of talk and discussion around what we created.
This ‘village’ could be on display for the rest of the school community to look at, through HSCL parents can be invited in to see what they created OR for the last session parents could be invited in to help finish the creation.
Other thematic activities could include: using Beebots on maps or even to code to move around the ‘village’ linking geography and science, Oral language new vocabulary, Visual Art. History can be included to look at homes from the past. Environmental Awareness and Care, caring for My Locality, can link to Green Schools. Maths Shape and Space.
As part of the SSE and Introducing the new Curriculum focusing on one area: all the Elements of the STE Curriculum are being used: Exploring and Understanding, Creative and Critical Thinking, Applying and Problem Solving, Evaluating and Communicating.
Hi Sabrina, I am so impressed by this range of activities. I love all the ideas and how they connect. I especially like the lesson on creating their own mini planetarium. How amazing this would be! It is also a nice sensory activity that links into wellbeing, than you for this idea.
Module 3 Space and Aliens Activity
Teaching Junior Infants the whole topic of aliens is one that is fascinating and really brings out their imagination, this topic would cover a multitude of cross curricular lessons. It is great for sparking curiosity about space.
To Start : I would read: The Way Back Home By Oliver Jeffers
Discuss the story, what are the differences between the martain and the boy, where did the martian come from/where do you think he lives? Are aliens /martians friendly?
At the end of the story there is an opportunity to create a role-play between the boy and the martian with walkie talkies.
Prompt:The boy can tell the martian where he lives? Role play the martian then describing where he lives. (give different children turns at this) Continue to question, where would he sleep? what would he eat? Who does he live with? What do they look like?etc
Hand on activity: Create the martian/alien home
Split the class into groups: One is given junk art/glue/scissors/art materials to construct/create the martians home. Another group can use junk art to design/create martians. Another group can use playdough to create the martian and his friends/family. Another group has a large roll of paper to design, draw/colour the home of the martian. Monitor/discuss/support as they create encouraging collaboration, prompts, use of fine motor skills etc.
Allow groups to walk around on completion to discuss/admire the work of others.
The finished creations can be dislayed on the ‘Space’ table.
Additional activities could be creating aliens in clay to paint, alien tag in PE, sensory play ‘alien slime’, blow painting aliens with paint/straws. The opportinities are endless really.
Hi Aoife,
Bringing the learning home through the use of a ‘Moon Journal’ is a lovely idea for this age group. It allows for engagement and further discussion at home and also is exciting to report back on in school the next day. Having children aware of the moon cycle and in particular the full moon and they could investigate are there also any changes in emotions/behaviour which may also help explore why some of us become ‘lunatics’ as we often see in school around a full moon. 😉
Module 2
Activity Set: The Planets
Junior Infants – as part of Space Theme/Earth Week
This activity would be a few lessons into ‘Space’ having first looked at the Sun and Moon. Now it is time to investigate Planets.
Show a picture or present globe of Planet Earth.
I wonder what this is?
Can children identify Planet Earth?
What is a Planet? Can they name any other planets? Where are they? What do they look like? Can we see them? Lets look out the window. Do they look like Planet Earth? Why/Why Not?
Lets look/listen to a song about the Planets: 8 Planets of the Solar System Song by KLT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQrlgH97v94
What did you notice about the planets in the video, can you name any etc Which is your favourite? Why? Can we live on other planets? Why/Why not?
Children create our own solar systems. Using Large paper plates, paint them black and cut out and colour planet templates, use star stickers, glitter and design their own solar sytems. Show and Tell at the end allowing children discuss what they created and allows for assessment of new space related vocabulary.
An extension/additional activity (we did this in yard) using chalk draw a large sun (big enough for a child to stand on) and then a ring around it with Mercury as a circle on the ring. Continue with outer rings in different colour chalk with a circle on each ring representing the planets. Nominate children to stand in the planet circles and when prompted get them all to walk around their chalk ring demonstrating how the planets rotate around the sun. Further questions on who had the shortest/longest distance to travel, why?
This integrates well for Junior Infants covering Art, Music, Drama, Maths, Science, Geography and PE.
Hi Aoife, I really like the construction element of this for Infants, great hands on activity and really lets their creativity go wild. They could also use big and small lego or shape magnets to create rockets/spaceships for astronauts.
The reflection through their drawings is useful also and a tool for assessment.
Inquiry Based Learning Junior Infants
Link to the story Lost and Found by Oliver JeffersMelting Ice- Save the Penguins
Strand: Materials/Energy and Forces
Strand Unit: Materials and Change/HeatPrompt: The Penguin from Lost and Found is frozen in an iceberg
I wonder what we could use to help him escape and get home to his friend?
Provide penguins trapped in large ice-cubes (icebergs) in tuff trays for each group and put in pairs.
Children can touch/handles the ice cubes, what is feels like/ describe, what makes the ice/why?
How can we help the penguin/ what could we use? (look inside and outside the classroom for ideas)
Record some ideas/predictions. Provide a box of things that they could use. (Fabrics, water (warm and cold) , salt, paper, squirters, foil, cups) Access to outside. Allow plenty of time.
Bring back into groups/pairs.
Investigate which penguins are free/almost free and record the methods used and interpret which methods worked best. Why did it work best?
Reflect and consider other ice experiments we could try.Morning, My name is Niamh, I am an Infants teacher and will be teaching Junior Infants next year.
My Space Fact comes from a talk I was lucky enough to attend many years ago in Kerry where the guest speaker was Neil Armstrong. He advised us that they knew before the mission that they would not have enough fuel to return to earth and were relying on the forces of gravity of being pulled around the moon to propel them back home. Scary but true.